So you've read up to where myself and Dave Collins had just oddly ran/quick walked with all of our luggage, to the coach area where we were going to simply get on the festival coach to go to Croatia, but even this was confusing...for us.
By the way if you are reading this and your wondering what the hell I'm talking about, do note that this is part 2 of my review of my time in Croatia at Unknown festival...So I would advise you to read part 1 to fully understand what the devil is going on.
The end of part 1 saw the picture of the photo bomb guy, with our coach in the background, that me and Dave were assuming we were getting on. Here's how it went...
We joined a fairly large queue from practically everyone on the flight to get on the coach. As the first coach leaves, me and Dave have our transfers checked. As I am typing this right now, I am looking at my transfer ticket....and the first bit of confusion for us was that on our transfer e-ticket, it simply says:
'8th September 17:45 - 20:15, Trieste TO
UNKNOWN FESTIVAL (2 people)'
So when finally greeting the coach driver to assist with our luggage, he asks us with poor english:
Driver
"Amarin? Valdaliso? Villas Rubin?"
Me
"Erm, Unknown Festival...Camping"
Driver
"No no, no coach"
As odd as this sounded to me and Dave, Im sure it sounds pretty odd to you, I turn around and ask the rep what was going on, he then tells me that the camping is at Amarin.
Me
"Amarin! Amarin!"
Driver
"okay, okay."
As we got on board and waited for everyone else to be checked, the rep comes on board to greet us all. The rep then goes on to tell us that the coach ride would be around an hour and a half, and there was only to be one pit stop for the toilet, and so anyone wanting to go now, should do so.
At this point approximately 23 of us men get off the coach, run across the road and strangely align our selves along side this tall bush, where we all simultaneously pee. What we didn't know was that this was the main road in which all vehicles come in and out of the airport, and so various cars and vans were driving past us as we were doing the business, which I could not help but laugh at the same time. Once we had done that, we finally set off, and I was immensely looking forward to the coach journey, knowing that I was to see various bits of Italy and Slovenia and of course, Croatia.
I assigned myself a task whilst on this coach journey, and that was to find and capture the beauty's of the landscapes. Although I learned that this was quite difficult to do when on a coach.
It was a shame that the sun was to go so quickly. When on the coach with everyone from the flight, it was surprising that everyone was not in high spirits and singing and already partying when on the coach. Before I went I had this thought that everyone would be getting to know each other and partying and singing all the way there, a coach drivers nightmare to be honest. We were all fairly quiet to be fair, and this was predominantly due to the flight and the early morning wake up's everyone had done I think.
Okay so this is Trieste from afar, and what I can tell you is that this was not what I thought Trieste was going to look like. I mean do you ever do that? right before you go to somewhere new, you kind of imagine what the place is to look like, but when you actually see it, it's completely different to how you imagined. I mean I actually thought Trieste was going to be small. I would never of imagined it to be so large harbour and industrial looking. Still impressive though.
Whilst on this journey I remember listening to my iPod, to Richie Hawtin's DE9 Fragments set in Copenhagen, and I remember thinking how far I've travelled in one day. From that me and Dave met a nice couple that were across the aisle from us, whom were from L.A. Turns out that they had been travelling for 24 hours...and this really shut me up. I was stating to them of how tired I was from travelling and that It was crazy to think how far I had travelled in one day, and then they come out with that statement, thats true commitment to the dance scene right there.
You know how everyone says 'It was better if you were there to see it for yourself'? this was very true as for some reason, when looking on the coach, the big windows were giving off an effect as if you were viewing everything outside in widescreen.
Our time in Italy was actually very short, 45 minutes I think. Before we knew it we were already in Slovenia. Now if someone was to ask me:
"Hey, you've been to Slovenia, what's it like?"
My review of the place would probably be inaccurate, but from my point of view, when going through it, there were some lovely looking hill landscapes and woodland. There was also a few houses around, some derelict and some abandoned during construction.
I couldn't help but feel there was sense of repetitiveness when on the road. You know when in old cartoons they use the same background that keeps repeating when the characters are in a chase? where the same things in the background keep going past? well that's practically what Slovenia was like for me. Everytime we would go past a roadside business/building it would have big sign saying 'PIZZA' and every corner you went around, there would be pit-stop places where there would be big signs outside saying 'PIZZA'. Almost everywhere you looked, pizza was the only word/food being advertised to travellers. there were no other signs Ill have you know, just 'PIZZA', thats it. There was a time where I thought we were just going round in circles, as a lot of the buildings had similar architecture, so they all looked exactly the same.
So this was my failed attempt to capture the official sign stating 'Welcome to Croatia'. I can confirm there was a small cheer as we passed this sign.
So as you can probably guess, apart from the things to see and the small conversations me and Dave were having, there was not much derpiness to report, but don't you worry there's more... not really from us though.
You may notice that in the last pictures you saw, it was getting dark, and from when we were in Croatia, it went dark pretty quickly so we didn't see as much of Croatia as I had hoped. We actually arrived in pitch black, but I was very excited at this point when finally arriving.
Derpiness & Drama...When 'checking in'.
So when arriving, the information pack stated us to collect our festival wristband, then our accommodation wristband, which were in two different stages. Whilst getting these wristbands, the info pack also stated us to collect our cashless card thing.
Myself and Dave get off the coach and we both rush over to the check-in. When we get served by this Croatian girl, Dave presents his ticket, and then I state:
Me
"I'm on the guest list, I don't have a ticket."
Croat Girl
"Erm, guest list? ... what guest list?"
Me
"Yeah, I did online promotions for this festival, and I was put on the guest list as part of payment, my name is James Chang."
Croat Girl
"Erm...I don't know, let me go get someone."
From here, me and Dave had to wait another 15 minutes until we were eventually seen to by another Croatian girl.
Croat Girl 2
"You on guest list?"
Me
"Yeah, under the name James Chang. My online team leader was Pasquale Chiavetta of Sound Channel if that helps."
Croat Girl 2
"Erm...We have no guest list. Go to next tent."
So as we were told, we went to the next tent where they were giving out the festival wristbands. When we got served it turned out that in this tent, all the staff were english. I stated my case, again and:
*After repeating myself*
English girl
"Okay...*typing on ipad* yeah your here, cool."
In that instant I finally receive my wristband and we are then told to go to the next stage which is the cashless payment card. Bare in mind that me and Dave are still lugging around all of our luggage, which is taking it's toll with Dave, as at this point his wheelie hand luggage had a dodgy wheel which kept making the case flip over.
There was no real derpiness to report when obtaining our cashless card. What was good for me was I was able to test out Croatian, which at this point was derpy Croatian. Phrases such as 'Dobro Vecer' and 'Hvala' was used.
After getting the card we were then in need of getting our accommodation wristband. This meant me and Dave had to further lug around our luggage down a tarmac hill and join another small queue at the accommodation tent.
After a small amount of waiting we are to be served by Croatian staff again. Communication went like this:
Croat Girl 3
"Hello, how long you stay here?"
Me
"Till Sunday 15th."
Croat Girl 3
"And you have your own tent?"
Me
"Yeah I do."
Croat Girl 3
"Okay, can I have your ticket reference number?"
Me
"Erm I don't have one, I'm on the guest list."
Croat Girl 3
"Guest list?"
Me
*sigh*"Yeah, I did online promotions, and I'm on the guest list."
Croat Girl 3
"You have no ticket?"
Me
"No, I wasn't given one."
Croat Girl 3
"Hang on let me ask someone."
10 minutes later...
Croat Girl 4
"You say you on guest list?"
Me
"Yeah thats right, under the name James Chang."
Croat Girl 4
"Which guest list?"
Me
"There's more than one? I don't know, the online team guest list perhaps?"
Croat Girl 4
"And you have no ticket?"
Me
"...No. I wasn't given one."
Croat Girl 4
"Hang on, I go get someone."
During this interval where back then I was waiting to be seen, again, I shall take this moment to confirm this is 90% accurate to how this went for me. Only some of the wordings may be incorrect. Why do I remember this so clearly? because it was annoying.
Dave was just literally waiting around with me. Bare in mind we had already gained our festival wristband anyway to prove that we had gained entry into the festival.
At this point I am waiting around for more than 15 minutes as the other Croatian girls serve other people waiting in the queue. Whilst I am waiting I am greeted by a girl whom is also waiting around. I obviously had no idea who she was, but she was slurring her words when asking me these random questions:
Queue Girl
"From Leedsssss? you from Leedssss?"
Me
"Nope, are you?"
Queue Girl
"Yeaaaaaah, Mark, Mark...dya know Mark?"
Me
"Mark? nope, who's Mark?"
Queue Girl
"Ah, everrrryone knows Mark, he runs it, runs it mate"
After this statement she suddenly turned around to chat to someone else about this Mark guy. After a further waiting of approximately 10 minutes, a Croatian guy comes to speak to me instead.
Croat Guy
"You say you on guest list?'
Me
"Yeah thats right, under the name James Chang"
Croat Guy
"Oh, we have no guest lists here...hang on a moment."
The Croat guy then begins to look on his laptop. From my perspective, it looks like he was on Facebook. He then begins ringing someone at the same time. After some browsing on his laptop the Croat guy then puts his laptop away, and hangs up the phone.
The man then gets on a scooter and then drives away...I assumed to this point he was going back to the first checkin. I am then told by one of the Croat girl to wait alongside the tent, where there are two other guys waiting to be checked in.
It is here where I learn that the two guys waiting with me and Dave are no ordinary festival goers, they are also apart of the online promotions team. It was here where I met Ollie Bishop, and Ethan Mounfield (which for the majority of the festival, I was calling Ethan, Matthew because I forgot his name, and thought it was Matthew.).
From feeling stressed, and annoyed I felt a sense of ease and calm, just by simply knowing that I was not the only one having really bad trouble checking in. We begin chatting about ourselves, joking about the Croatian staff and also complimenting there efforts made us all feel better about the situation.
The Croat guy returns from his journey with his scooter, our knight in shining armour returns to then give one of the Croat girls a piece of paper. The Croat Girl then asks us for our names, and it was right there, where we were finally given our On-Site wristbands.
The girl also gave us other bits of paper confirmation and information. She also goes to tell me and Dave that were in Green camping zone, marked area 398.
So, were walking down one of the camping road lanes, Dave's luggage is still tipping over by itself, were both pretty exhausted, and we have yet to setup our tent, and also find our allocated space.
Green camping area right? there should be signs for it surely, wrong. Instead there were A4 pieces of coloured paper stapled to trees, which weren't exactly lit up either, and so we had to rely on my torch to see whereabouts we were.
How do we find 398? turns out that this was marked on a concrete slab on random areas of the grass which we had to find in the area.
As you can imagine, this proved a difficult task, as it was in the dark, and what was typical for us, was that we kept finding areas such as 399 and 397, it was driving us mad, eventually we found what was either 398 or 390, but at this point we had given up.
So after all of that, it was time to face our next task, which was to setup our tent...in the dark.
We begin by moving our luggage to an appropriate place. Dave rests my torch on top of his suitcase so we can get a wide shine of light on our area. Once getting the tent laid out, this next part went like this:
So after all of that, it was time to face our next task, which was to setup our tent...in the dark.
We begin by moving our luggage to an appropriate place. Dave rests my torch on top of his suitcase so we can get a wide shine of light on our area. Once getting the tent laid out, this next part went like this:
The tent was a little too close to the luggage,
so I ask Dave to move his suitcase.
He grabs it by the handle,
and yanks on the handle to swing it out of the way...
*Konk, Thud*
What was on top of the suitcase?
My torch... It falls and lands on a rock,
the light goes out, we can't see.
*Facepalm*
I remembered this moment, as it was like I saw it in slow motion.
There was nothing I could have done, it was already too late.
I just watched, it happened, I face palmed.
As I'm pacing back and forth, whilst resuming to move our luggage, Dave then attempts to fix the torch, which takes him a few minutes. It was here where Dave told me that by variously smacking the bulb area would eventually make it turn on.
So we actually arrived on time, which was 8:15pm.
We actually finished everything, checking in, setting up camp at 12:20am.
Our initial idea was to go for a drink once we got setup, however we didn't realise It was going to take so long. So what we simply did, was went for a walk, and it was great. It was the best part of the day, and we found this sign area (below), which is what I will finish on.
End of Part 2.
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